Caesar this week 65g (grown +10.5g) ==> 4.37x his original weight. He's now coming out for brief periods of daddy quality time each day , still not so sure about being picked up , but once he's on my tummy or chest he's OK for few minutes , then decides he wants off.

He likes taking his silkworm from my fingers, and is very good at taking crickets that way too.

He had his 2nd full shed last week so was a bit "grumpy".

Caesar is now occasionally letting me pick him up for qt with me and Cleo, Cleo being on me calms him .Cleo on the shirt , Caesar sitting in my hand being petted using my thumb. Was good while it lasted (about 3 minutes) then both Caesar and Cleo spotted something interesting and warranting closer examination).

Last edited by kingofnobbys on Wed May 15, 2019 7:29 am, edited 3 times in total.

Cleo definitely is fascinated by Fluffy , if Fluffy makes an appearance to drink , play in her water dish or raid her food dish when Cleo is out on me , Cleo immediately pays attention and wants to visit Fluffy's tank rim , to take closer look at the water skink. Fluffy simply plays cool and goes about her unusual activities but wont go back to sleep in the cool zone until Cleo goes back into the dragon rearing tub , then she expects me to pick her up and give her some quality time too.

Caesar has a new routine, every night for the last week he's been making a little "nest for himself" in the cool zone (back corner) and pulling the covers (paper toweling) over himself about 30 minutes before the lights go out.

I ran out of medium and large silkworms yesterday and Caesar was not impressed when he didn't get his daily big silkworm , I offered him some crickets by hand and his response was to look at me in disgust , as is to say to me " yes , I know they are crickets , but I want my silkworm, where is it hooman " , when he figured the silkworms were not coming he accepted the crickets.

Caesar is coming out for a couple of short period of quality daddy time on my tummy each day now, and colours up very brightly now , but like Toothless , he is a live wire and wont sit still on me for more than 5 minutes before he decides he's had enough and wants off or back in the rearing tub with Cleo.

So far so good, Cleo and Caesar have been very good together and often chose to bask and sleep together and even synchronise their pooing. Caesar doesn't like Cleo being taken out the rearing tank and watches her and me like a hawk while she's out on me and he has been scratching and standing up at the corner nearest where I usually sit and only settles if I reach in and pet him and talk to him. Today he even voluntarily climbed onto my hand when I did this.

I know this blissful situation is not permanent .

Last edited by kingofnobbys on Thu May 16, 2019 12:35 am, edited 2 times in total.

I'm glad to hear they're both still doing well. Enjoy the "blissful situation" while you can I suppose =). I've noticed the nest building/burrowing behavior that Caesar has been doing as well. Small fleece blankets or a pile of scrap fleece has been popular for my guys to burrow and sleep in.

OK - since Caesar has decided he likes to bed down in the cool zone under the paper , I've stripped 4 sheets of paper towel and rolled them into loose balls (4 per sheet) and deposited them in the corner he likes to sleep in.

Cleo was the first to notice the change and was into the paper balls exploring them right away. Nothing gets past her.Caesar discovered them ofter his last buggy meal for the day and after a basking session and likes them. He was under / in amongst the pile of paper balls and asleep by 9pm.

Finally , some of the latest batch of silkworms reached 1.5" long so I offered one to each of the BTSs , and Caesar and Cleo .Cleo turned her nose up (no surprise - she's not fond of them , prefers her BSFL & crickets.

Caesar ended up having a wormy diner , disappeared them both in as quick as I put them down infront of him , after he'd had some medium crickets.

This morning he totally refused his meal of crickets , not even my handing them to him worked (usually works a treat), he sat there and watched the crickets very intently but refused to hunt them or even eat any that blundered into him and was frequently looking at me (using his beardie mind powers to get me to go his bidding).

He's a smart boy and remembered that I gave him silkworms for diner yesterday and he was holding out for some more.

After an hour of this I gave in and asked him if he wanted a silkworm and picked up the silkworm tub to take the lid off, suddenly a very animated Caesar, he was up quick as a flash to where I usually give him is crickets and silkworms and suddenly very brightly coloured. Two med/large silkworms were gone in no time and he was a very happy dragon.

Yep he's got me well trained already , I know who the boss is …. and when it comes to the lizards , it aint me .

Update : did the same to be for his evening meal, ignored the crickets entirely, disappeared 2 more silkworms in next to no time. Gave him a huge energy boost, finally crashed in the back corner and made a new nest for himself under his paper.

Caesar today : 79.2g (+9.1g this week ==> growth spurt again ) ==> now 5.18x start weight.I think he's decided I'm NOT so horrible afterall . Caesar and I had a really nice snuggle and spent some QT watching TV together, he cooloured up nicely and didn't the beardie bum wriggle to snuggle into my tummy and hand , and became so relaxed he starting to dose off , each time he did he's suddenly open his eyes and look back towards me and I'd resume tickling his back (my cue).Here he is

Caesar turned his nose up at some crickets again today, ignored the large white BSFL I offered to him too , even refused a strip of buk choi , but as soon as I deposited a big juicy silkworm in front of him it was gone , and the same for a second one too.So he's definitely decided he LOVES silkworms , and ONLY wants them (he's a worm-junky !!! but at least the worms he craves are very good nutritionally so I'm prepared to go with that for now while I have enough medium and large silkworms on hand in my worm rearing tubs to satisfy him , they are very quick meals for him too).

He then decided he'd had enough daddy QT and wanted to go elsewhere. (in this case he spotted Fluffy and after a few armwaves at her , which she duely ignored , he was wanting to take a closer look at the old water skink.

I was up this morning (stargazing) and noted that when the lights turned on at 5:30am (was still very dark outside) , Caesar was awake almost immediately and after trying the beardie stare at me to no avail was up to bask on Cleo's basking bark inside 10 minutes . Cleo wasn't far behind him in climbing up top of the log to bask.The skinks were all still in the land of Zed when I retired at 6:30am.

Adjusted the timer to come on 6am for now. Will likely go to 6:30am in a few weeks.

Cleo is now 43.1g (+1.9g (4.6% growth) this week ==> 4.31x original BW.She's decided she wants only really wants crickets this week and isn't overly enthusiastic with the BSFL , I am trying to get some BSFL inbetween the crickets for her late afternoon meal but she has been spitting them out)

Caesar is now 81.3g (+2.1g (2.7% growth) this week , ==> 5.42x original BW.He's shown interest in only one meal per day = 2 large silkworms). Caesar has been spending a fair bit of each day curled up in the cool end under some paper sheets. I think he's noticed the change in weather.Today he's rediscovered the heatslab.

Cleo is now 45.0g (+4.5g (4.4% growth) this week) ==> 4.50x original BW.She's decided she wants only really wants BSFL this week and not been enthusiastic with the crickets .I'm giving her one meal of insects per day now , and only offering a second if she shows me she's interested in a second meal later in the day, the salad is replaced daily she's got that to nibble on if she's hungry.16 to 20 large BSFL seems to satisfy as a meal.

Caesar is having a little plateau in his growth this week , now 80.9g (-0.4g (-0.5% ) no visible growth) this week , ==> 5.39x original BW. He's lost interest in the salad this week, the 2 large silkworms per day have been satisfying him.Not concerned - this gives Cleo a chance to catch up in the growth stakes.

He's shown interest in only one meal per day = 2 large silkworms). Caesar has been spending a fair bit of each day curled up in the cool end under some paper sheets.

Very cold weather here : there was snow only 100km away on the Barrington Tops yesterday. Been lucky to crack 18 degrees C in the days , but windy-as and windchill makes it feel like 5 degrees C , was 8 degC overnight here .

Caesar has decided he doesn't mind snuggles on me sometimes now.Group snuggle - yep - this two like being tucked in under my tshirt too.Cleo is at front.

Last edited by kingofnobbys on Tue Jun 18, 2019 5:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Caesar still only wants silkworms , they are big and starting to pupate and make cocoons now so he's only wanting one large silkworm each day.Can't tempt him with crickets , or woodies , but he will take anything wormy , ie a superworm .

Yep he got his first superworm as a treat yesterday and made fast work of it and gave it really good chewing up.

Caesar likes his personal log hide , yep I set up a second heatslab in the cool zone of the rearing tub (set to 28 degC) on Monday and he loved it and tucked himself into bed under the paper toweling that covers it. So yesterday I recommissioned one of the old acrylic hollow logs and it's ontop this second cooler heatslab and he LOVES it. Cleo likes it too and does "musical chairs" between her nice warm hide and his cooler one..

Today I saw Caesar armwaving and doing slow headnods while looking up at me while I was nursing and petting Cleo . Cleo responded by simply staring at him.

Cleo has decided silkworms aren't so bad , so she's been getting the silkworms who are starting to spin their cocoons (she's smaller than Caesar and they are more her size) and she's been eating 16 large BSFL & 2 silkworms per day.I think she may having a growth spurt as she seems much hungrier than Caesar ATM , she's also spending more time basking and in the warm zone than Caesar is too (dominating him ?).

Cleo is now 47.9g (+2.5g gained this week) ==> 4.79xDecided she likes silkworms too. But still mostly taking large BSFL by hand along with some 2/3 size crickets.Cleo likes a sleep-in but is always up by brekky , and will stay awake most days basking on her bit of bark or ontop the warm hide til 8pm.

Caesar is now 87.8g (+6.9g gained this week) ==> 5.89xHas decided he doesn't mind some of his insects given by hand, still only really interested in silkworms , but he's had his first superworm and LIKED IT !! and also prefers his crickets by hand, discovered large woodies, I think he liked them more than crickets.Caesar is my early riser , he's up with the lights when they switch on about 6am. But he crashes about 5pm.

Last edited by kingofnobbys on Fri Jun 14, 2019 7:19 am, edited 1 time in total.